College Athletes Should not be Paid to Play Sports

Should College Athletes Be Paid Essay Introduction

Over the recent past, there have been controversies regarding the payment of athletes who are still students in colleges and universities. This has been a major issue, especially within the NCAA student-athletes as to whether they should be paid or not. Allegations have been made on college students getting payment. For example, Bush placed the football program in a lot of mess. He was also suspended for two years from the postseason. Recently, the Ohio State football program has brushed shoulders severally with the NCAA (http://windsorlocks.patch.com).

Should college student-athletes be paid for the services they offer during their years of study? This is a very complex matter to deal with based on the issue that colleges also claim they have no money to pay them. Athletics is not superior to academics. On the other hand, athletics is considered as a source of employment in some regions. The recognition is even growing further into most societies. Adolph Hitler once said, “Give me an athlete and I'll give you an army.” The paper would clarify if indeed this statement is true.

Some scholars argue that students should not be paid for participating in sports while understudying. There are claims that some students receive scholarships from colleges just to join them in order to participate in sports. In the United States, students pay an average of $10,000 per semester. Some institutions pay up this amount in exchange for participation in athletics. Additionally, some students are still paid some cash on top of the scholarships. This really widens the gap between them and their ordinary counterparts.

College athletes are considered to be still on the path to becoming recognized professionals. They are not liable for any form of payment as they have not completed that specific contract. They are indeed under training just as they are still pursuing their degrees. The competitions are usually classified under college sports where college students are the individuals to participate in such events. This distinguishes the competitions from professional sports. It is absurd as no one pays the other students in other disciplines. For example, no one pays a journalist when he sets up interviews at a college radio station. This is because the student is basically on his line of study and calls for no payment. This should apply to the athletes as they are not any special beings (http://www.inprintmagazine.org).

Colleges have enough areas where their finance should be channeled. These are places like building and expansion of facilities, paying coaches, extending scholarships and paying athletic directors. Should they choose to pay their athletes, then there will be very little left to facilitate the other programs. Indeed with this very stiff economic downturn, colleges would stick out their necks in order to include payment of athletes in their budget. The society has forgotten that these college athletes are student-athletes. This implies that the word student appears before the word athlete. They are students just like other students. No one is paid in college to attain an A+. It is common sense that a student should work extremely hard to achieve this status. If athletes are paid in college, then their integrity is really in the path to destruction.

I believe that it would be very cumbersome for the coaches to instill discipline upon students who are being paid for their services along the track or in the field. The students plainly know that even if they disobeyed the coaches they still had the opportunity to be paid a lot of money. This breeds very poor character that cannot auger well in the world out of college because they will not act professionally. College teaches students to be good disciples. This becomes very difficult when a student is being paid a lot of money.

Some students and indeed most of them join college sports in order to be picked by advanced clubs and agencies. They join college sports to sharpen their skills in a particular field. This is very common in European countries. It is, therefore, meaningless to be paid for the services that will eventually benefit you individually. College athletes are in the same position as that student is determined to get that Engineering or Medicine degree. The same level of seriousness and determination should be applied by college athletes.

This practice ruins an entire culture. This is for the reason that the student is alienated from the community due to the payment program. People love campus sports because they interact closely with the participants either in class or within the campus. In other words, the students are just like any other person on campus. Paying a college student would take a lot of this pride and feeling of togetherness away since they have been separated officially by the factor of payment. What rings in the minds of other students is that these students are more important than the rest. Due to this, the college team would lose a lot of fans for its participants. The usual buzz that is experienced when colleges participate in sports would be lost when they decide to pay the athletes. Imagine losing the sound of bands playing on the pitch and the sight of young energetic players showcasing their talent on the field (http://www.dailyevergreen.com).

Tiger Woods got the inspiration from the NCAA when he was taken out for lunch by Arnold Palmer. This happened when Woods was still in college. There exist a line between being an amateur and becoming a professional based on this reaction by the NCAA. Becoming a professional does not guarantee royalties and endorsements. The baseline is that an athlete should only be paid by an organization. This implies that a college athlete should not be paid anything on top of the scholarship. The payment of college athletes would widen the gap between the major division one schools and the major teams.

Companies like Nike use college students in their promotion of products. This does not imply that they have contracted the athlete. They have indeed used the athlete’s name on their promotions. Rusell Baker says “Can't anything be done about calling these guys student-athlete? That's like referring to Atilla the Hun's cavalry as weekend warriors.” According to Rusell, these companies are not as transparent as they are fond of exploiting unpaid athletes. The video game industry uses college athletes in games and videos minus giving those names cum credits. Should some contract be given then players would earn at least some token.

Should College Athletes Be Paid Essay

Adolph Hitler once said, “Give me an athlete and I'll give you an army.” This is indeed true. From the information gathered, it is very evident that college athletes should not be paid. This is because it would be very cumbersome for the coaches to instill discipline upon students who are paid for their services in the track or in the field (http://www.bdlsports.net). The students plainly know that even if they disobeyed the coaches they still had the opportunity to be paid a lot of money. This breeds very poor character that cannot auger well in the world out of college because they will not act professionally. College teaches students to be good disciples. This becomes very difficult when a student is being paid a lot of money.